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A Look Back At Conversion And Analytics In 2015

Now that we've popped the champagne corks and said goodbye to 2015, columnist Brian Massey takes a look at which Conversion and Analytics columns resonated the most with readers and what we can learn for 2016.

What a year it was for Conversion and Analytics. Just in case you didn’t read (or listen to) every single Marketing Land column I wrote in 2015, I’m going to summarize the year for you here. Not only that, but I’m going to recap the year with the guidance of you, my readers.

Comparing My Choices To Your Choices

Apparently, what I think is awesome to write about differs from what my audience finds awesome to read about. This is the puzzle at the heart of all conversion optimization: What do my visitors expect from my writing, and why do they think in such twisted ways?

Here is a word cloud of the titles of my 13 columns in 2015. The larger the word, the more often it appeared.

Wordle of Brian Massey’s Marketing Land Column Titles in 2015

Here is a word cloud of the titles with more weight given to those you, my eager readers, visited most.

Brian Massey’s 2015 Marketing Land Titles weighted by page views.

Taking the largest words from the first cloud, we would determine that I thought you should read about “Conversion Optimization for Websites using Google Analytics.” Based on your visits, you said you wanted, “Ways to do WebsiteOptimization with Google Analytics. Like a boss.”

The Home Page And Mobilegeddon

Home Page, Help Me Choose

The primary job of your home page is to get people on their way into your website. It is not a billboard.

The only service your home page should provide is “help me choose.” Help your visitors choose to stay with clear value propositions. Help them choose the next step in their journey through your site.

Lower Revenue Is Scarier Than Google

If you are blowing up your entire website to support mobile devices, you may be blowing up your conversion rate. Think twice before converting your high-performing desktop website into a responsive site.

How Many Marketers Have Optimization Tools Installed?

While 78 percent of these organizations had web analytics installed, only 3.4 percent had A/B testing tools installed. Less than five percent had any sort of session recording or click-tracking software installed.

These organizations are paying significantly for very desirable traffic. Why so little attention to optimization?

How A/B Testing Tools Are More Than Win-No Win

In “The Multi-Goal Magic Of Split Testing Software” I show you that A/B testing tools are really sophisticated analytics tools. They tell you more than whether a change is better or worse for your site. I walk you through the ways you can measure funnels anytime using these tools.

What Biases Are Coloring Your Decisions?

One of my favorite columns was on the biases that infiltrate your design and marketing decisions. Biases turn well-meaning team members into “bias zombies looking for the next person to misguide.”